General Information about Yunus Centre Internship

Last Updated : 17th August, 2015

About Yunus Centre

Since October 2006, when Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize, local and international interest in Professor Yunus' work has greatly increased. In order to address this ever-growing attention, an organization aimed primarily at promoting and disseminating Professor Yunus' philosophy, with a special focus on social business, was created in the form of the Yunus Secretariat. In July 2008, the Yunus Secretariat was renamed the Yunus Centre. The Yunus Centre has since been the one-stop resource centre for all Grameen social business related activities, both globally and locally in Bangladesh. It keeps the spirit of the global social business movement high through various events, social media, publications, and websites. The Yunus Centre also helps forge lasting productive relationships among all social business institutions around the world. The Centre is chaired by Professor Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and its Executive Director is Ms. Lamiya Morshed.

Professor Yunus has long been promoting the creation of Grameen social businesses, which he believes will address the problems still left unsolved in the world with the present capitalist system. In simple terms, a Grameen social business is a non-loss, non-dividend company dedicated entirely to achieving social goals. In social business, the investor gets his/her invested money back over time, without receiving any dividend beyond that amount. The Grameen Bank is a prime example of social business, with the poor people being its shareholders! The ultimate goal of the Yunus Centre is to create “poverty museums”, after bringing a total end to poverty. The Centre strives to engage individuals and organizations in creating, promoting, and maintaining social business by spreading the concept through workshops, internships, projects etc.

The Internship Program

Yunus Centre's ambition is to become a global centre of excellence for social business incubation. It is a laboratory for research and development of social business ideas.

The Yunus Centre internship program primarily aims to be the centre of social business incubation, where social business ideas are being researched and developed. Upon arrival, all interns will have the opportunity to participate on a village trip to broaden their experience and to learn about the philosophy and operational procedures of Grameen Bank, as well as the impact of Grameen on the economic and cultural life of borrowers and Bangladesh. Interns will also have the chance to visit Grameen's affiliated sister companies and social business sites.

As a part of its ambition to maintain excellence, Yunus Centre requires the applicants to possess not only an above-average academic or entrepreneurial background, but also demonstrate strong leadership skills along with an interest in social business as an investment for the future. Applicants can be students, academics, businessmen or pretty much anyone who has demonstrated interest.

It is extremely important that the design and implementation of this program adheres to a structured, standardized, and an organized system in order to attract great minds, and to then successfully keep them within the Yunus Centre family. Applicants hoping to work alongside their like-minded peers to forge lasting relationships based on the ideas behind social business will discover the Internship Program at Yunus Centre to be the ideal avenue that allows them to do so.

The Yunus Centre internship is unpaid and you are responsible for all your living costs in Bangladesh, including food, transportation and accommodation. The minimum duration of internship is 3 months. The interns will be required to maintain a regular schedule of the local 10am-6pm, Sunday-Thursday office hours and to submit a report to their supervisor upon completion of their internship.

Application instructions

To apply, one must fill out the Yunus Centre Internship Application Form and send it along with his/her CV to internship@yunuscentre.org. There is no application deadline as interns are accepted throughout the whole year. However, the application must be made at least three months prior to the intended date of arrival. Successful interns will be contacted once their applications have been processed.

Click HERE to download the application form.

Internship Program Structure
Week 1, 2, 3, 4: Desk work
Week 5: Field Visit
Week 6: Desk Work
Week 7: Social Business Site Visit
Week 8: Desk Work
Week 9: Department Visit
Week 10: Desk work
Week 11: Desk work
Week 12: Desk work

It is important that you gain some background knowledge about living in Bangladesh prior to your arrival. To access some general information about Bangladesh, CLICK HERE.

For more information, please contact us at: internship@yunuscentre.org